USAA Check-Scan Patents Deemed Abstract, Verdicts Reversed (1)

The Federal Circuit ruled that mobile check-scanning patents owned by the financial services company USAA, underpinning a pair of multi-million verdicts against PNC Bank NA, are abstract and invalid.

The last valid patent tied to a $4.3 millionverdict “is directed to the abstract idea of depositing a check using a handheld mobile device,” putting it in the basket of ideas typically not eligible for patenting under the US Supreme Court’s decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, wrote Judge Todd M. Hughes in a precedential opinion issued Thursday.

A separate nonprecedential opinion wiped out three other patents ...